COVID-19 Precautions and Preparations

The McAlester City Council met in an Emergency Meeting on March 25, 2020, and issued a new Order Declaring Existence of a Civil Emergency.
Read the full order here.
It adopts the same standards as the Governor of Oklahoma's Executive Order 2020-07 as Amended on March 24, 2020, and the Executive Memorandum 2020-01 as Amended on March 25, 2020, and closes all non-essential businesses in the city prior to a confirmed case of COVID-19 in Pittsburg County. This Order is in effect from 5:00 pm on March 26, 2020, until 8:00 pm on April 14, 2020.

If your business remains open, please consider this guidance from the Pittsburg County Emergency Management Center.

McAlester had enacted two previous Orders Declaring Existence of Civil Emergency. If you would like to see those, you can read the original order issued on March 20, 2020, here or the second order issued on March 23, 2020, here.
 
To reduce the risk of community spread of COVID-19 (Coronavirus), the City of McAlester is implementing temporary precautionary measures at city properties. This list will be updated frequently as decisions are made.

All closings listed below are effective until April 5, 2020.

  • The J.I. Stipe Center at 801 N. 9th Street is closed and all activities at the site are canceled. The meals served through the Senior Nutrition Program will be distributed through pick-up and delivery services.

  • The McAlester Expo Center on Highway 270 and the Tourism Office at 119 E. Choctaw Avenue are closed to the public.

  • The Carl Albert Building at 301 E. Carl Albert Parkway will be closed as of 5:00 pm on March 17, 2020, to non-essential visitors and municipal court procedures are postponed. Any citizen needing in-person assistance from police or dispatchers should call 918-423-1212 for direction. In case of an emergency, call 911. Anyone needing to make payments to the Municipal Court Office is advised to pay through the mail, online, or by phone at 918-421-4939, if possible.

  • McAlester City Hall will be closed to the public except for open meetings effective 8:00 pm on March 17, 2020. Anyone needing to make payments to the Utility Billing Office is advised to pay through the mail, online, or by phone at 918-423-9300 or through payment kiosks located at Pruett’s Grocery at 601 E. Wyandotte Ave. or the Choctaw Nation Travel Plaza at 1640 S. George Nigh Expressway. Meetings of the McAlester City Council, Planning Commission, and other boards will continue as planned and citizens are encouraged to take advantage of “virtual” attendance such as watching live streaming on social media rather than attending in person. Customers are urged to conduct business with the city through telephone, email, and the website at www.cityofmcalester.com. The public can stay informed through the city’s official Facebook page.

  • The McAlester Recycling Center is closing all operations starting at 2:00 p.m. on Wednesday, March 25, 2020. Citizens are unable to leave items at the drop-off facility and are asked to dispose of them in the same manner as their household trash during the closure. The shut down is the result of a lack of staffing to process recyclables paired with the closure of down-stream facilities that accept the materials from the site.
See the full press release on city closures.

The McAlester City Council met in an emergency meeting on Tuesday, March 17, 2020, to consider resolutions related to the city’s response to the COVID-19 (Coronavirus) pandemic. At the end of the meeting, Mayor John Browne proclaimed a state of emergency for the city. 

  • The city manager is authorized to use the emergency fund to insulate general fund programs to cover revenue shortfalls of revenues and monthly expenditures up to $500,000.

  • The Council temporarily increased the expenditure amount the city manager can authorize from $25,000 to $50,000 before requiring a vote of the city council. The additional spending authorization is set to expire on June 30, 2020.

  • The councilors voted to authorize the city manager to provide relief to utility customers by suspending the 10-day cut off policy for utility services until July 1, 2020.
Read the resolutions.
See the emergency proclamation. 

To learn more about precautions related to COVID-19, visit websites for the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention or the Oklahoma State Department of Health.